AURORA BOREALIS:
The night was long. I idly drifted in the sky, held in the grasp of the stars. I asked questions to the night sky and myself. My purpose, what I wanted, what comes next. By the end of the night, I was no closer to an answer than I was at the beginning of the night. When the sun rose, I stared at it. I watched it banish the night sky. Once it was properly in the sky, I decided it was time to quit being dramatic and get to work. I gazed at a large grassy plain with nothing around it.
Greater Teleportation
I appeared there in a blink. I decided to test out my innate powers. From my inventory, I withdrew Longinus and Archo Aegis.
"Enoch, combat mode."
"Affirmative, Architect"
Before Enoch finished speaking, the golden necklace around my neck unfolded around my body in impossible proportions, covering my entire form in elaborate golden armor.
I spun Longinus in my hand before plunging it into the ground. From my inventory, I withdrew the Ichos Sphere. I held it in front of me as though I were offering it to someone. And then I dropped my hand. The sphere remained floating in place, as if I were still holding it up. I picked up Longinus once more.
Scry
The sixth-tier divination spell allowed someone to view a target via a medium. The medium could be many things, but it was often a reflective surface. Mirrors, bodies of water, or, in my case, a crystal ball.
The target of my spell was myself. I enjoyed what I was looking at. Clad in thick golden power armor, flaming wings burning bright behind me, and matching shield and spear in hand. I began giving a few practice thrusts and swipes with Longinus, all while admiring my form. Do forgive the pinch of vanity, but I looked badass. My armor dimly glowed blue at its seams and within engravings. My helmet completely obscured my face, but a thin blue visor cracked my helmet horizontally. Close examination of the visor revealed the hexagon patterns holding it together. Despite the relatively small size of my visor, I could completely cover it up with two and a half fingers- my vision was completely unimpeded. The halo crown matched my movements perfectly.
And I felt perfect too. Wielding both spear and shield felt natural. Like I've been fighting with them for a thousand years. I could feel the myriad of powers, spells, and skills lingering on the edge of my consciousness. Like ethereal fingers waiting to simply be flexed. I considered my options before deciding to try them out at random.
Dazzling Gleam
My entire body glowed with ephemeral light. Holy energy erupted from my person, assaulting the surroundings. After the glow subsided, I examined the area. No environmental damage. The grass remains intact. Perhaps some insects were killed by the influx of divine energy, but I wasn't interested in crawling through the dirt to verify that.
Solar Flare
My entire body glowed with a bright orange light, and a wave of fire emerged from me. Twenty meters in all directions were burned. The grass was blackened, burning out quickly. I flew over to a nearby tree and pointed my shield in front of me, as though I were defending from an enemy attack.
Shockwave
I felt a slight kick from the shield as pure, unrelenting force launched forward, battering the wind and ground. I heard the crack of the tree getting eviscerated. I lowered my shield to the side and saw the hundreds of shards of wooden shrapnel launching across the grassy plains. What a satisfying sight.
I spent a couple of hours practicing other abilities. I summoned and buffed angels, then tried casting some angelic pyromancy spells. One of them got caught in the flames and ended up dying. There's friendly fire damage. Or more likely, there's no concept of "Allied" like in YGGDRASIL. That's an incredibly useful piece of information to know. I drew forth a dagger, dismissed Enoch, and lightly cut my arm. It hurt, but barely so. My passive regeneration healed the small wound quickly. I practiced my auras. As a paladin, I could toggle various auras that had passive effects in an area surrounding my person. High-level paladins can shape their auras. They could launch the AOE out in a column, cone, or in all directions. Naturally, I had this ability. But here, in the new world, I had greater control. Rather than having a list of presets to choose from, I had an instinctual idea of how much space I could cover.
I summoned the Ichos sphere and began practicing divination. I targeted groups of birds I'd seen fly by moments ago. That worked. Then I targeted abstract things like the nearest goblin. It didn't work. I admired myself for a bit. I tried to find every last piece of the tree I destroyed. The exact location of the shards was implanted into my mind. I then scried Carne Village. My stomach dropped. Numerous armored men were riding into the village, blades drawn. They came through the southeast. Most of the villagers were being rounded up near the center of the town. I noticed the Emmot family alongside the Chief's family. There were about a dozen or so casualties. Some of the raiders were dragging a woman aside, presumably to force themselves on her.
Greater teleportation
ENRI EMMOT:
I was scared. I've never been more scared in my life. These men came from as if from nowhere. My mother held me in her trembling arms, her fear bleeding over and amplifying my own. Nemu and the rest of the children of the village were gathered beneath the clock tower, being held captive by a quartet of knights. That's who these men were. They were the knights of the Baharuth Empire. The insignia of the Baharuth Empire was proudly displayed on all of their shields and breastplates. But they weren't honorable knights. They were brutes, animals in men's skin. A few of them were currently dragging off Matilda, kicking and screaming. When Matilda's husband, Morgan, tried to stop them, they killed him. I could barely hear her begging and sobbing over the rest of the begging and sobbing of our group.
I couldn't hear them over my begging and sobbing. Were they going to kill all of us? Why? The wars between the Kingdom and the Empire were held at the Katze plains. They've never raided villages before. This was barbaric. One of the men in armor, one of the few who had an open helmet showing his wretched face, pointed at me. His blue eyes were staring at me lecherously. I could make out short blonde hair peeking out from the top of his helmet. My stomach dropped.
"You, girl. Come with me." He said an ugly sneer on his face.
My mother clutched me tighter as I began to sob. I knew exactly what the disgusting man wanted. He began stalking towards me, sword in hand. My father was getting to his feet, ready to defend me with his life. Then all of the knights' attention was alerted to where Matilda was being taken. In the distance, I heard combat, The clash of steel, groans of death, and shouts of fear. I looked over, alongside everyone else present. A large man clad in golden armor stood on the corpses of the knights who stole Matilda. A large spear was clenched in his right hand, blood dripping from it. Two wings made of fire undulated from his back, the flames flickering in the shape of feathers. And a golden crown floated above his armored head. Hope blossomed in my heart.
LONDES DI CLAMP:
Who the hell was that? It…looked like an angel, but it was unlike any other angel I've ever seen before. Was it a summon of the sunlight scripture? But why was it attacking our men? The four men who dragged off that peasant were dead within seconds. My musings were interrupted when it raised its free hand and pointed its palm at the villagers we had grouped up. Strange engravings on its palm lit up with a bright blue color.
"Dome shield."
I've never heard of an angel speaking. After it spoke those words, a dome composed of blue transparent interlocking hexagons covered all of the villagers. It pointed its other palm toward the children gathered beneath the clock tower. Another shield was enclosed around them. A barrier to protect the villagers? It turned its gaze towards my group. It raised the spear, cocked its arm back, and threw. I could barely track the motion of it preparing its shot. I couldn't even see the spear in flight. One of my men was struck by the spear, tearing through his armor and flesh instantly. It looked like his chest simply exploded.
In a flash of flaming light, its spear was back in its hand. I opened my mouth to bark orders to my men, to do something, but paused when its entire body shifted into a cloud of mist. The mist cloud shot up and forward, over the dome shield protecting the villagers, landing in a group of ten men. It resolidified into its armor. Two thrusts and three slashes, and the group was dead. Murmurs of fear from my men reached my ears, cries begging the gods for salvation, for mercy.
"No..please no…"
"I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry…"
"Mercy, Great Surshana, mercy please…"
Captain Belius, the man who was about to attempt to drag the blonde girl from her mother's arms, began blubbering.
"I-I'm not someone who should die here!" Belius shouted. "You lot, hold that monster back!"
I didn't exactly have a smile on my face given the circumstances, but his selfish orders made me scowl quickly. I was the captain of this unit, but for the course of this mission, I was relegated to vice-captain while he was named captain. He was the second son from a wealthy noble house, assigned to this mission to earn glory by assisting the sunlight scripture. But he was a crude man, overcome by perverted desires. He had forced himself on at least one villager from every village we torched before killing them.
"I'll give you two hundred gold pieces, n-no, five hundred gold pieces! For each and every one of you!" He offered such an impressive sum I doubted he could pay it. But even if he could, none of the men would accept. It'd be like asking them to slit their throats for the reward.
Perhaps it was my imagination, but even the angel was appalled by his selfish behavior. There was no time to ponder its behavior. I had to act. Belius was a captain in name only. This was my unit, these were my men.
"Hornblower! Call back all the archers!" I shouted. Normally the horn was held by my vice-captain, a fine soldier by the name of William. "The rest of you! Buy time for Vice-Captain William!"
The men formed two lines between the angel and Vice-Captain William. The rational part of my mind knew that their shield wall was as good as paper before the monstrous angel. It could force its way through with pure strength, it could fly over, or it could move right through them as a cloud of mist. But I knew we had to try something.
The Angel didn't move an inch, however. It just stared at us. This unnerved me. The archers we had on horseback were prepared to hunt down and shoot any running villagers. Now they came rushing in on horseback. They drew their bows and shot at the angel. The arrows bounced off before striking its armor as if repelled by an invisible barrier. Damn it! The damn thing stood still, just letting the arrows fly at it. A straw arrow struck the dome shield protecting the villagers before bouncing off. So the angel truly was here to save this village. But why this one? Why not any of the others that we had torched?
Golden light glowed around the ground the villagers kneeled on within the barrier. In the distance, a similar golden light lit up around the children beneath the watchtower. It did something to the villagers. I didn't have a damn clue what was goin-.
My train of thought crashed to a halt as a wave of fear hit me. My legs went weak, I fell to my knees, and I could hear my teeth clattering in unison with the rest of my men. An aura of pure despair radiated from the monster. I was damn close to soiling myself here and now. The horses panicked, running wild and bucking off their riders. The shield wall collapsed. I could smell urine coming from the usurper Belius. And then the pressure vanished. But the fear remained in our hearts.
"Throw down your weapons at once." The Angel ordered. It raised its spear to its free hand, gripped it, and leveled it at us. "Or die within the next minute."